On March 7, Cracked writers Pat Carnell and Eric Yosomono had their excellent 5 Badass People Who Stood Up to Infamous Dictators published on the site. Almost immediately, because the Internet is ever vigilant, comments were posted that they had “stolen” that article from a site called...
Note: This is my original post about plagiarist Alex Noudelman, but a lot has happened since then. Check out the sequel to this post for the sad and hilarious story of how Noudelman tried to blackmail me! PS: Alex, if you really want Tumblr to delete these posts so bad, perhaps the easiest way would be to apologize.
Yep, another jackass is stealing articles from the Cracked forum and posting them before Cracked can do it, making the original writers look like plagiarists. Oh, and the best part? The guy who’s doing this, Alex Noudelman, best known as the author of YouTube smash hit Top 10 Ugliest Female Celebrities, calls himself a “copywriting specialist” who will create “fresh material” based on his “clients’ values.” You know, assuming those values include “blatant plagiarism” and “stealing money from other writers by copying their articles before they can be published." Update: And he also appears to have filed a copyright complaint against Cracked on Google! Yes, for the article he stole.
Here’s the evidence, but be warned that there are images of this douche’s face by the end of this post, so try not to read this at the office or around impressionable children.
This is the article Top 10 Badass Things Ever Said to Dictators, published on January 4, 2014 by CoolTop10s.com:
And this is the pitch X Badass/Awesome Things Said Directly to Dictators, posted on September 24, 2013 by Pat Carnell and Eric Yosomono on the Cracked Workshop:
(That’s right, this idea was originally pitched six months ago and it was only published last week, because Cracked articles take a shitload of work from a lot of people – the same people who are being called plagiarists now thanks to Alex Noudelman.)
Here are some entries from both articles to show you that they’re the same fucking thing:
CoolTop10s:
Cracked:
CoolTop10s:
Cracked:
CoolTop10s:
Cracked:
And so on. All 10 entries in the CoolTop10s article are copied from the 18 that were pitched on the Cracked Workshop between September and January. And this isn’t the only article they’ve stolen – here’s Top 10 Shocking Ways North Korea Boosts Its Economy, also posted on January 4, 2014 by CoolTop10s:
Did you like that Breaking Bad reference? It was stolen from the Cracked Workshop along with the rest of the pitch 5 Ways North Korea Boosts it’s Economy (That Are Completely Insane), posted on December 18, 2013:
CoolTop10s:
Cracked:
And so on. Here’s Top 10 Barniest Dictators, published on December 23, 2013 by CoolTop10s…
…which is culled from two different Cracked articles published on December 3, 2010 and August 11, 2013:
CoolTop10s:
Cracked:
And check out Top 10 Bizarre Criminal Defenses, published by CoolTop10s on November 23, 2013…
…which is awfully similar to this Cracked article from 2009 and this other one from April 18, 2013:
And so on, and so on, and so on. (Thanks to Pat Carnell for finding all these examples; there are probably more out there.) So how do we know that Alex Noudelman is behind all this? Because when the stolen Top 10 Badass Things Said to Dictators article first came to the attention of the writers at the Cracked Workshop, there was a byline at the end claiming it was "written” by Alex Noudelman and linking to this Google Plus profile. The link and the name mysteriously disappeared right after we started talking about Alex Noudelman at the Workshop (which suggests Alex Noudelman has seen our discussion about his plagiarism, and doesn’t give a flying shit), but his Google Plus page is still full of CoolTop10s links:
And the username for Alex Noudelman’s associated YouTube account is… CoolTop10s1. Yes, we are dealing with a highly creative individual here.
(Update: Noudelman also calls CoolTop10s “my site” in some of his DMCA complaints, despite denying this in later ones. See Update 3 below for more.)
And here’s something strange: Alex Noudelman’s Facebook page is private (obviously, he doesn’t want people going in and plagiarizing his brilliant ideas), but he has made public posts sharing articles from a site called RichTop10.com:
And what do you know, RichTop10.com also loves stealing Cracked articles – here’s Top 10 Misconceptions About Religion, posted on RichTop10 on January 24, 2014 and reposted by BeforeItsNews.com. (Both sites have since deleted the article, but Cracked writers managed to get pictures before they did.)
Compare that with X Misconceptions About World Religions, pitched on the Cracked Workshop on December 18, 2013:
RichTop10/BeforeItsNews:
Cracked:
Same goddamn thing. And again, the whole thing was stolen from the Workshop pitch before the Cracked article was finished (and before the original writer had a chance to be paid for his work). Oh, and speaking of BeforeItsNews.com, last year they published a PR fluff piece about a company called Wisdek Corp, and guess who’s listed among the employees as “copywriting specialist”:
That’s right, potential employers: if you don’t have time to write content yourself, Alex Noudelman will copy the shit out of it for you.
Here, once again, is the Google Plus profile that Alex Noudelman deleted from “his” articles: https://plus.google.com/u/0/101866227157730080202/posts
And I encourage you to send Alex Noudelman a message through the “Contact Us” form on his website (I already did, but he hasn’t replied): http://richtop10.com/contact-us/
UPDATE: I’m so sorry, I just noticed that on his job description up there, this hugely talented wordsmith calls himself a “Copwriting Specialist,” presumably as in someone who will write to the cops when your site is busted for plagiarism after you hire him. So he was being honest about his job all along. Never mind.
UPDATE 2: Cracked Workshop posters have found a few more articles that Alex Noudelman stole and posted to his various Top 10 sites. UPDATE 2.2: After I posted this list, Noudelman tried to delete all the stolen articles. Unfortunately for him, you can still see all the evidence of this theft through archive.org, so I’ve updated the links.
Original: http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-weirdest-political-parties.php
Stolen: http://cooltop10s.com/top-10-funniest-political-party-names/
Original: http://voices.yahoo.com/top-10-most-famous-mistresses-celebrities-politicians-4659333.html?cat=2
Stolen: http://cooltop10s.com/top-10-greatest-mistresses/
Original: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-11574000
Stolen: http://cooltop10s.com/top-10-fast-facts-about-ariel-sharon/
Original: http://www.cracked.com/article_20032_5-terrifying-origin-stories-behind-popular-childrens-songs.html and http://www.cracked.com/article_16576_the-disturbing-origins-5-common-nursery-rhymes.html
Stolen: http://cooltop10s.com/top-10-nursery-rhymes-shocking-origins/
Original: http://www.cracked.com/article_16406_the-6-most-terrifying-allergies-you-can-actually-get.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_19166_6-medication-side-effects-straight-out-horror-movie_p2.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_18508_6-terrifying-diseases-that-science-cant-explain_p2.html
http://shine.yahoo.com/vitality/mystery-maladies-that-will-surprise-you-2576572.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/05/27/10.rare.diseases/photos.html
Stolen: http://cooltop10s.com/top-10-mysterious-diseases/
Original: http://filmracket.com/the-10-best-portrayals-of-mental-illness-in-modern-movies/
Stolen: http://cooltop10s.com/top-10-best-portrayals-mental-disorders-movies/
Original: http://www.cracked.com/article_20584_the-5-most-absurdly-offensive-theme-weddings-ever-planned.html
Stolen: http://cooltop10s.com/top-10-wackiest-wedding-themes/
Original: http://listverse.com/2013/03/03/top-10-shocking-documentaries/
Stolen: http://richtop10.com/top-10-disturbing-documentaries-to-watch/
Original: http://top-10-list.org/2013/04/19/top-10-embarrassing-moments-political-history/
Stolen: http://richtop10.com/top-10-embarrassing-moments-in-american-political-history/
Original: http://listverse.com/2011/07/25/10-famous-musicians-with-hearing-damage/
Stolen: http://richtop10.com/top-10-famous-people-with-hearing-impairment/
Original: http://listverse.com/2008/07/20/10-famous-people-who-married-their-cousins/
Stolen: http://richtop10.com/top-10-famous-people-who-married-their-relatives/
Original: http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/how-much-does/10-expensive-instruments-world/
Stolen: http://richtop10.com/top-10-most-expensive-musical-instruments/
Original: http://www.whyihatedogs.com/10-reasons-why-i-hate-dogs/
Stolen: http://richtop10.com/top-10-reasons-why-i-hate-dogs/
Original: http://the10mostknown.com/10-most-expensive-bucket-list-activities/
Stolen: http://richtop10.com/top-ten-expensive-bucket-list-activities/
Original: http://earthsky.org/space/ten-more-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-solar-system and http://thefw.com/facts-about-the-universe/
Stolen: http://richtop10.com/top-10-interesting-facts-about-solar-system/
UPDATE 3: As mentioned above, Noudelman has been sending complaints to Google to get them delete other people’s articles:
https://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512c/notice.cgi?NoticeID=720259
http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=693605
https://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/notice.cgi?NoticeID=712806
http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=232368
In other words: Alex Noudelman steals work from other writers, then sends legal complaints to Google because his work was “copied without permission.” To be fair, it doesn’t look like he’s complaining about the same articles in the above links – as far as I can tell, Alex Noudelman is the legitimate author of “Top 10 Hottest Teens in Hollywood.”
UPDATE 4: Scratch that last part. This gets more and more bizarre. Alex Noudelman has not only filed a copyright complaint against Cracked on Google for “stealing” the article he stole in the first place, he also temporarily replaced the article with a message attacking the original author, and now he’s accusing everyone who so much as mentions his name on Twitter of harassment. Oh, and that’s just a day after “someone” pretended to have cancer on Twitter to attack the same Cracked writers (for a joke about Noudelman losing his manboob).
Stay classy, Alex!
UPDATE 5: A lot has happened, so check out my follow up to this post: How The Dumbest Plagiarist In The World Tried To Blackmail Me (And Failed Hilariously)
